Jannietta

You know the scenario no matter how ‘light’ your diet is in terms of calories, fat content, carbohydrates, sugar or salt you still end up weighing ‘heavy’ on the scales. Do you ever stop to think what else could be contributing to your heaviness other than just the food you are eating? Do you ever examine what else you consume on a daily basis? For example when you swallow the lightly grilled piece of salmon, the light bite salad or the lighter than light sugar free desert do you also swallow alongside it a huge portion of resentment at not being able to eat what it is you really want to eat? Do you constantly fret about what you should and shouldn’t eat and almost worry yourself to death with fear that you are never going to achieve the slim, healthy body you long for? Many of the emotions that commonly accompany ‘dieting’ of any kind tend to be of the heavy variety such as bitterness; resentment; fear; frustration; anxiety; anger or envy. As someone who has tried to diet many times over the years I would venture to say that rarely would anyone find themselves feeling joyful, bright; breezy; carefree; happy or contentedwhilst on a diet. Usually any feelings of joy that are felt as the pounds begin to fall away are short term and easily threatened by the ever lurking fear that we won’t be able to satisfactorily maintain the weight loss and that we are doomed for ever to be FAT, living in bodies that we find loathsome andunattractive. Could it be that it is as much the negative emotions that we experience throughout the course of our days that contribute to our heaviness as it is the foods that we eat? I think so. Losing weight is not just about a number on the scales. Lightness of mind and spirit is as much a part of our ‘weight problem’ as the food we eat. Allowing negative emotions to accumulate as stress in our bodies can literally weigh us down. Emotions are not meant to be carried in the body they are meant to be ‘in – motion’ passing easily through the body. When we allow our negative emotions to pass through us then we realise (make real) our own inherent lightness. When we can feel and experience ourselves as this LIGHT then we will more easily adopt eating habits that contribute to that lightness; (eating with gratitude would be just one of these habits; enjoying the taste of our food would be another!) So how do we go about cultivating a diet of lightness? The answer is simple; we feed ourselves with light things; light food, light thoughts and experiences that enlighten our minds, bodies and spirits. We must give ourselves permission to BE LIGHTby setting our intention each day to BE LIGHT. Mother Teresa encouraged us all to ‘Be the light that you are’ implying that BEING THE LIGHT was the only fulfilling way to live and I agree. When we pursue the act of becoming the ‘light that we are’ and make this the focus of our days we are freed to reinvent our ideas of what constitutes a diet. No longer are diets about food only; they are about finding other ways to FEEL LIGHT. In this way we get to experiment with ways of bringing joy, peace, calm, laughter, fun, creativity and love into our daily living knowing that all these contribute to our overall sense of LIGHTNESS. Widening our understanding of LIGHTNESS in this way gives us much more scope for achieving and experiencing long lasting success. Eventually we may even get to the place where stepping onto the scales no longer fills us with fear and dread because we know that how we feel in our own bodies and minds is a much truer measure of the LIGHT that we are. I’d love to hear your thoughts on BEING LIGHT. Please share them in the comments below. Thank you.

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Author

The opinions I express here are my own. However I offer them with the word 'syat' next to them. 'Syat' is a word used by the Jain Tribe in India which means 'To the best of my knowledge SO FAR.' In the spirit of openness I invite comments from anyone whether you agree with my point of view or not. In this way we can all learn and grow together. Thank you.